Hunting duo has sights set on TV career

ON THE PROWL

NIPISSING – Two local hunters are vying to become Canada’s newest outdoor television personalities.

“It’s tough to be able to put the time and energy into something like this,” said Sean Leduc, half of the hunting team Northern Assailants. “It’s probably been my hardest year. Lots of bad luck.”

The team, of Leduc, 35, and Michael Taylor, 49, both of Nipissing, is currently competing to be the next stars of their own hunting show by entering footage of their hunts on The Search, a show that airs on Wild TV.

Up against teams like The Prairie Assassins and Team Killbillies, the Northern Assailants have been logging hours and hours of footage.

The team shoots all of the footage themselves and converts it to the proper format before mailing it out.

“They do all of the editing,” said Leduc, noting the duo goes through the footage to take out anything totally unnecessary. “We have until the end of January to collect footage and hopefully have what they want. We probably have about 50 to 60 gigs of footage so far. But we’ll go through it first and narrow it down.”

The winner receives airtime at no charge from Wild TV to get their own show going, as well as a complete graphics package. Produced by award-winning production company Nature Productions Canada, all of the outdoorsmen in the series are rookies to outdoor television. The show airs coast to coast on Wild TV in March. From one end of Canada to the other, the different teams within The Search will show multiple hunts, by multiple people, in multiple parts of Canada. Day 1 might start out with a cast member pursuing whitetail in Ontario, meanwhile another cast member, hundreds of miles away is embarking the same journey in Alberta.

The duo met through their participation in the North Bay Bow Hunters and Archers club. Leduc hunts strictly using a bow and Taylor switches between a rifle and a bow.

Although both men live in the Nipissing area, Leduc works as a manufacturing technician in North Bay and Taylor is a guidance counselor in Sturgeon Falls. The duo has been working full-time while conducting their hunts.

But that’s about to change. The six teams are set to head to South Carolina this coming Sunday to take part in a hog hunt. While there, the hunters are taking part in a film school to learn how to shoot footage properly.

“This will be my first time going outside of the province to hunt,” said Leduc. “We’ll actually have lessons on filming and there will be competitions.”

Leduc said he and Taylor had to purchase all of the proper equipment to be able to film their hunts.

“Our goal really is to get into the industry. Not necessarily to win this,” said Leduc.

He said he would like to get involved in a TV show in some way or in guiding.

“The industry is getting huge,” he said. “I come from a family of hunters. But I have taken it to extremes.”

Leduc owns 50 acres that he spends all year prepping for the hunting season by creating fields and food plots for deer.

“It is a difficult life if you get into it at this level because you’re scouting all year. It’s nonstop.”

Leduc said good hunters spend more time strategizing than shooting.

“We pick a certain individual deer,” said Leduc, noting he and Taylor have cameras set up in the bush to see what their options are. “We don’t just go out and shoot everything we see. Last year, there were almost 100 deer that came into range of my bow and I only shot two.”

Leduc said understanding your prey and researching its activity is part of what makes a good hunter.

“It’s about 80 per cent scouting and 20 per cent hunting,” he said.

Half of the votes come from the viewers and the other half from special guest judges who either have outdoor related products or are veterans in the outdoor industry.

Be sure to keep an eye out for the show and cast a vote in favour of a hometown team.